What privatisation gets you: An inquest jury has blamed unlawful restraint methods for contributing to the youngest death in custody in Britain for more than a century and concluded there had been a serious system failure at the detention centre. A rehearing ordered by the appeal court found today that the manhandling of 14-year-old Adam…
Showing all posts tagged human rights
Egyptians, we stand with you
Feel the fear in Israel and America. The Arab world is rising up. Decades of dictatorships are under threat. Tel Aviv and Washington have created a nexus of bigotry to support their goals. And now what do they have? Mass anger. Nice work. US Vice President Joe Biden talks about Mubarak being “moderate” and a…
Goldstone was right; “cleansing” Gaza was IDF goal
Israeli tank-commander speaking to Britain’s Channel 4: We needed to cleanse the neighbourhoods, the buildings, the area. It sounds really terrible to say “cleanse”, but those were the orders….I don’t want to make a mistake with the words. It gets worse.
This is the only logical outcome of us backing Mubarak for so long
Hossam el-Hamalawy, Egyptian writer and dissident: It’s too early to say how they will go. It’s a miracle how they continued past midnight yesterday in the face of fear and repression. But having said that, the situation has reached a level that everyone is fed up, seriously fed up. And even if security forces manage…
No democracy for Middle East, says Zionist politician
As if confirmation was needed that the Zionist state loves dictatorships in the Middle East. Jewish desire for freedom (and occupation) are clearly more important than the democratic aspirations of millions of Arabs. Arrogance has rarely been so clear, as well as the bankruptcy of the Jewish “democratic” state: The fall of Tunisia’s regime headed…
Galle Lit Fest has form on social exclusion
Following the ever-growing traction of the recent Reporters Without Borders statement outlining the human rights abuses in Sri Lanka and the Galle Literary Festival’s response to it, journalist Eric Ellis sent me two of his articles (one from 2005 and the other from 2006) that show how the organisers have a history of courting the…
McEwan should consider what he’s really backing in the Jewish state
It’s healthy that a major literary figure is made to consider his involvement in an Israeli event. Visiting the Zionist state isn’t simply just another place; it’s a nation that is institutionally desperate not to talk about its occupation: Ian McEwan has replied to pro-Palestinian writers who have accused him of accepting the “corrupt and…
Writer pulls out of Galle Lit Fest due to human rights issues
When we released this statement over Sri Lanka recently, I would never have imagined its global impact. What does it show? That a strongly-worded statement can have an effect and raise uncomfortable and necessary questions for an event that is far too keen to avoid the realities in dictatorship Sri Lanka. The latest: South African…
So this is how Australia deals with its human rights obligations
Just how keen is the Australian government to send back hapless refugees to a rogue and illegitimate regime that can’t even maintain security in the capital? A plan to automatically deport failed Afghan asylum seekers from Australia has been condemned by a coalition of organisations and prominent experts. The Australian government reached an agreement with…